User:BillieGielen/The Phoebus Foundation

The Phoebus Foundation is an art foundation based on Anglo-Saxon law with philanthropic objectives.

The foundation acquires works of art, guarantees a professional framework of conservation and management, and looks after the conservation and restoration of the objects. In doing so, she focuses on scientific research. She shares the results of this all with the widest possible audience, through exhibitions, cultural expeditions, symposiums and publications.

Mission
The Phoebus Foundation is founded to ensure the future of the collection that started as the private collection of Fernand and Karine Huts and of the family enterprise Katoen Natie.

To extract the collection from the industrial and financial risks of the Katoen Natie group of companies, it was placed in an independent legal structure, aimed at the management of its property rights. The Katoen Natie and the Huts family are not beneficiaries of the Foundation. Objects from the foundation can never be sold for the benefit of the company and/or the family. The Phoebus Foundation strives to return high quality pieces to Flanders and/or to keep them here.

Anglo-Saxon inspiration
The Anglo-Saxon approach served as inspiration for the founding of The Phoebus Foundation, following the example of cultural foundations such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Frick Collection in New York.

Financial support
The Phoebus Foundation and its operations are supported by the companies of the Katoen Natie group and the Indaver group.

Name
'Phoebus' refers to Phoebus Apollo. In ancient mythology, Apollo functioned as the protector and leader of the muses. Together they entertain themselves on Mount Parnassus. Apollo brings inspiration or even divine enlightenment and is the protector of the mythical golden age - a heavenly era in which violence, greed, jealousy and injustice do not yet exist.

Collections
The collection of The Phoebus Foundation consists of nine subcollections.

Art from the Southern Netherlands from the Middle Ages to the Baroque
The focal points within this collection are formed by painting and sculpture, but there are also manuscripts, prints, drawings and decorative objects. The emphasis is on art from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, featuring works by from Hugo Van der Goes, Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert and Maarten De Vos to Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.

Belgian art from 1880-1930
This collection centers impressionist and symbolist artists from Sint-Martens-Latem, such as Emile Claus, Gustave Van de Woestyne and Valerius De Saedeleer, George Minne. Furthermore it features expressionists Gust, De Smet, Constant Permeke and Frits Van den Berghe. In addition, there are works by Rik Wouters, James Ensor, Edgard Tytgat and Floris and Oscar Jespers, to conclude with surrealists such as Magritte and Delvaux.

Modern and contemporary art
The Phoebus Foundation owns works by Wim Delvoye, Marcel Broodthaers, Hans Vandekerckhove, Jan Vanriet and Jan Fabre.

In the park Singelberg, The Phoebus Foundation preserves works by the British artist Sophie Ryder, the Uruguayan Pablo Atchugarry, the Dutch Atelier Van Lieshout, and other artists from the Netherlands such as Michaël Aerts, Hubert Minnebo and Wim Delvoye. In 2018, The Phoebus Foundation acquired numerous sculptures from the former Brussels Airport collection, with names such as George Grard, Jean-Michel Folon, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Jef Van Tuerenhout and Panamarenko.

CoBrA
The Phoebus Foundation owns a extensive collection of CoBrA art. The focus mainly lies on the early period of this art movement with works by Appel, Alechinsky, Corneille, Jorn and Pedersen.

Textiles from ancient times
This collection consists out of fabrics and archaeological objects from ancient Egypt, ranging from the pharaohs to the Silk Road. The permanent exhibition '3500 years of textile art' is dedicated to this collection in HeadquARTers. This exhibition takes the visitor through the history of Egypt, with linen cloths, animal mummies, fragments of death books, death masks and the tunic room. There, the largest collection of complete tunicas in the world is shown, along with accessories such as hairnets, socks, footwear and jewellery.

20th-century Latin American art
The Phoebus Foundation possesses an extensive collection of Latin American art. The collection holds masterpieces from - among others - Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, with names such as Torres-Garcia, Gurvich, Alpuy, Berni, Schvartz and Matto.

Topography
This collection holds more than four hundred maps, atlases and cityscapes from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Highlights included atlases from Mercator, Ortelius, Hondius and Kaerius.

Reynaert de Vos
The Phoebus Foundation is the proud owner of more than 350 books about Reynaert de Vos, from the early 16th century to today. This collection was exhibited in 2018 in the form of an 'expedition' about the medieval epic. In order to launch this the Foundation worked together with Rik Van Daele, secretary-treasurer of the Reynaertgenootschap.

Port heritage
In 2003 Katoen Natie took the initiative to save the historical patrimony of the port companies. This resulted in a considerable collection of port heritage and historical photographs of the port of Antwerp. (6,7)

Conservation & management
The Phoebus Foundation is devoted to preserving the works of art from its own collection. The pieces are kept in the best possible conditions in air-conditioned art depots of Katoen Natie. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp also keeps a part of its collection here.

In the restoration studio of The Phoebus Foundation, artworks are preserved, restored and subjected to scientific research.

Research
The Phoebus Foundation strives for maximum knowledge acquisition on its own objects and on the broader cultural background in which these objects developed or functioned. In order to do so The Phoebus Foundation works together with academics and researchers at home and abroad. Such projects result into large and small exhibitions and/or publications.

Zot van Dymphna is a large-scale research and restoration campaign on the 'Dymphna altarpiece' by Goossen Van der Weyden, the grandson of the famous Rogier. This monumental altar comes from the Norbertine abbey of Tongerlo near Geel and has been part of the collection of The Phoebus Foundation since 2010 (9). The restoration treatment takes place between 2017 and 2020. Thuis bij Jacob Jordaens is another research project. In 1652 Jacob Jordaens painted a series of ceiling pieces about the love story of Amor and Psyche for his spacious home in Antwerp. These paintings have been recognized as masterpieces by the Flemish Community.(10) For the first time in art history they are being restored and explored extensively.

Exhibitions
The Phoebus Foundation aims to ensure maximal accessibility of the collection to the widest possible audience. Therefore she regularly organizes exhibitions and provides works on loan to museums at home and abroad. For example, works by The Phoebus Foundation were given on long-term loan to the Antwerp Rubens House (11), to the MAS (Antwerp), DIVA (Antwerp), the Rockox & Snydershuis (Antwerp) (12) and to The Art Institute in Chicago. The artifacts of the foundation are also suitable for temporary exhibitions such as at the Teseum in Tongeren. The foundation also cooperates with the Antwerp Emperors' chapel.

3500 years of textile art (enduring)
Since 2011 this permanent exhibition in Antwerp shows fabrics, clothing and archaeological findings from ancient Egypt, Rome and the Silk Road. In collaboration with The Phoebus Foundation and Katoen Natie an international congress by the name 'Textiles from the Nile Valley' is also organized here every two years. The company also finances the publication of the conference bundles.

OER. The roots of Flanders (March-August 2017)
This exhibition was organized in the Caermers Monastery in Ghent. OER talked about a tipping point in art and cultural history, and took the visitor to the early 20th century. In a separate scenography, works from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation were shown here, alongside masterpieces from Flemish private collections, such as from the collection of Herman De Bode.

For God & Money. Golden time of the Southern Netherlands (June 2016-January 2017)
This exhibition in the Caermers Monastery in Ghent took the visitor through the five golden centuries of the Southern Netherlands, ending at the Eighty Years' War. This exhibition not only showed pieces from The Phoebus Foundation, but also from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, the MAS, the Royal Library Albert I and the GroeningeMuseum. There were works by Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert and Peter Paul Rubens. This exhibition was not undisputed. Opponents talked about the 'marketing of public cultural activities'. At the opening, they therefore organized a symbolic funeral procession.

Coptic textiles in the Teseum in Tongeren
In the second half of 2018 an exhibition of eighty Coptic objects from the Phoebus Foundation took place in the treasury of the Teseum in Tongeren. The exhibition featured craft items such as clothing, fabrics and tools. Furthermore, it showed Coptic texts, pottery and household objects.